Proven Mobile App Retention Strategies: Beyond the Download

[00:00:00] Brian Fisher: Welcome to episode 146 of the BCFORG podcast, The Business of Business. I’m Brian Fisher. Get ready for the most actionable 15 minutes in business podcasting. This podcast series focuses on the various subjects and topics to help you run a successful, profitable business, and is targeted to business owners and C-suite executives, but anyone interested in business can benefit.

[00:00:33] It reflects my 34 years as a business owner and subsequent years as a business mentor and consultant. They’re approximately 15 minutes long, so you can listen while commuting. In the previous episode, 145, our guest was Sarah Codrey, discussing building impactful companies. Today’s episode discusses Beyond The Download with Ghazenfer Mansoor.

[00:01:01] Based out of Weston, Virginia, Ghazenfer Mansoor is the CEO of Technology Rivers, a software development firm recognized for creating AI-powered solutions. Today’s episode is packed with real-world insights and practical strategies for building tech that makes a difference. Let’s welcome Ghazenfer Mansoor.

[00:01:22] Ghazenfer, welcome to the BCFORG podcast, The Business of Business.

[00:01:30] Ghazenfer Mansoor: Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:32] Brian Fisher: Thanks for joining us today. Ghazenfer, I’m always interested in people’s stories. What’s your background becoming the CEO of Technology Rivers, a software development firm recognized for creating AI-powered solutions?

[00:01:46] Ghazenfer Mansoor: So my background is computer science. I didn’t learn business in school. I learned about computers. I was a programmer. I worked with different companies, two startups as an early engineer. Saw the growth, the startup world. That’s an exciting time. And then I did some consulting and started my own recruitment software startup, which was a SaaS product.

[00:02:09] And in 2015, I started this business which is helping businesses in product development, building the products the right way the first time because startups do not usually have a lot of money to build initially. So you want to have the right team to build the product so that the companies can focus on the business rather than working on the technology issues, and that’s where we come in.

[00:02:32] So, and then as we worked on, obviously technology kept changing, from starting as a mobile app development to doing custom to healthcare development, but now the AI is obviously taking over everything. So now our trio is healthcare, AI, and mobile.

[00:02:51] Brian Fisher: This episode’s topic is Beyond The Download. Why do some apps thrive and others fail?

[00:02:59] Ghazenfer Mansoor: So there are a variety of reasons. We all have so many apps downloaded on our mobile devices, but how many do we use every day? Is that because some have a really nice user experience, or some have a nicer design, or they’re just recommended by our friend? No. Mainly because it’s solving some key pain problems.

[00:03:21] So I am looking at, like, as I open up my phone, I’ll be using the app that is giving me a solution of what I’m looking for. So if I’m looking at my WhatsApp or a messaging app or Facebook, I am there to interact with somebody to do something, right? I may be waiting for something similar. I may be a sports junkie.

[00:03:44] I’m maybe looking at the news, the one that gives me better news, or that gives me better tracking of my health. All these different apps are there, and there are some out of the box available by Apple and Google, but at the same time, there are many that are created custom because those are solving a specific problem.

[00:04:04] So there are so many different strategies, and in my book, I talk about 30 plus different strategies, how to bring the users back, how to retain the users, different strategies. But I would say the key part is solving the pain points of the customers.

[00:04:25] Brian Fisher: Well, you mentioned how AI is changing everything.

[00:04:28] How is AI transforming the mobile app industry?

[00:04:33] Ghazenfer Mansoor: AI is changing everything, including the mobile app. In fact, I would say mobile apps are one of the most… I would say not really just the mobile app, but any software development, that’s being changed a lot. So through the AI, now you can build those apps really quickly.

[00:04:49] In the past, mobile app development was itself a huge problem. Now you can get a lot more insights, and you can create the apps really quickly. Obviously, that’s one big part of it, but now with the AI, all these new things that are coming, like whether it’s the monitoring, whether it’s deep insights, apps are the ones that are giving you a lot more…

[00:05:12] is another way of displaying that information. And obviously, AI is embedded right in every iPhone and Android.

[00:05:20] Brian Fisher: We’re speaking with Ghazenfer Mansoor, CEO of Technology Rivers, a software development firm recognized for creating AI-powered solutions. Ghazenfer Mansoor is building AI-powered software that reshapes healthcare and SaaS.

[00:05:38] He’s the author of Beyond the Download: Revealing How to Create Mobile Apps People Truly Love and Use Every Day. Ghazenfer also hosts the Lessons from the Leap podcast, where he dives into bold choices behind entrepreneurial breakthroughs. Now, let’s get back to the questions. Ghazenfer, how can you future-proof your business with AI, automation, and smart tech?

[00:06:07] Ghazenfer Mansoor: I think if you look at the service businesses, how do you really differentiate yourself from others? Is it a better service? Do you have a better sales team? Do you have a better delivery team, or are you more efficient? There are so many different ways. Oh, we have better processes.

[00:06:24] Your competitors can always catch up on those things. They can have the same CRM, same CMS, same tools that you have. But how do you create a differentiator? So the best way to do it, obviously, along with many other processes that you learn in terms of the business growth, is the technology part.

[00:06:46] So proprietary technology is the single most important differentiator in the service business growth and valuations. Because as you have a technology that’s solving your specific workflows, your specific pain points in your businesses, however you are doing, whether it’s a sale, whether it’s marketing, whether it’s a dashboard, whether it’s monitoring or anything in your business that are bottlenecks in your business, that are manual processes that are slowing things down, if you’re built using a technology to solve those problems, you’re not only bringing more efficiency, you’re getting more visibility, you’re getting a lot more insights into your data, and then you are taking actions that are helping you move ahead from your customers.

[00:07:25] So now you are becoming a company that is system-powered, not people-powered. And as you are system-powered, that means you are becoming more of a tech company and your technology is helping you increase your valuation. If you’re a service business with one, two or three or four times EBITDA multiple, now with the tech, then suddenly now you’re talking about ten times, 12 times, 15 times EBITDA.

[00:07:49] Suddenly your value is in their height. So if you’re looking to exit your business in the next few years or even just operationally independent or get out of the day-to-day or helping– or, or if you’re looking to grow or scale your business, technology and AI is definitely gonna make a huge difference in your business.

[00:08:09] Your competitors can copy your tools, they can take your people, but they cannot clone your specific workflows that are running in your business. So that’s the one that creates a differentiator in your business.

[00:08:25] Brian Fisher: We’re speaking with Ghazenfer Mansoor, CEO of Technology Rivers. Ghazenfer, is there anything I’ve not asked that you’d like to add?

[00:08:35] Ghazenfer Mansoor: I think you pretty much covered AI and technology and books. The book that I mentioned in my previous conversation is Beyond the Download: How to Build Mobile Apps That People Love, Use, and Share Every Day. There are different strategies that you can use to build mobile apps. A lot of those, the strategies that I talk about, the 10X growth and the mobile, are really applied in any business as well.

[00:08:59] I mean, as those startups are, are being built, as these businesses are being built, a lot of those strategies can help you grow to the next day.

[00:09:08] Brian Fisher: Ghazenfer, how can people get in contact with you?

[00:09:12] Ghazenfer Mansoor: You can always find me on LinkedIn, my personal website, which is ghazenfer.com, G-H-A-Z-E-N-F-E-R.com. My business website is technologyrivers.com.

[00:09:23] I also host a podcast, Lessons from the Leap. You can find it from my website. You can also find about my book from my personal website, ghazenfer.com.

[00:09:32] Brian Fisher: Ghazenfer, thank you for joining us today on the BCFORG podcast, The Business of Business.

[00:09:39] Ghazenfer Mansoor: Thanks for having me, Brian.

[00:09:41] Brian Fisher: My sincere thanks to Ghazenfer for joining us today.

[00:09:45] Managing the performance and future direction of your company are two of the most important things you do as a leader, and I’m here to help you. If you’d like to reach out to me for business mentoring or consulting, help you with a podcast, schedule a speaking engagement, or potentially be a guest like Ghazenfer, please go to bcforg.com.

[00:10:08] There’s a red Contact Us button in the middle of the homepage. These podcasts will be released the first and third Tuesday each month. This podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. In search, type BCF ORG. Be sure to leave a space between BCF and ORG. And I’m looking for this podcast to move from an upper mid-tier podcast to a top-tier podcast.

[00:10:35] Please leave a positive review, let your friends and colleagues know about it, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, or follow the podcast. Join us for our next episode 147, when our guest will be George DeBeck discussing ultimate networking. In business, running a successful, profitable business is the ultimate scorecard.

[00:10:59] You are never done and can always be better. It tends to be more fun than work, frustrating at times, but can be very rewarding. From BCFORG Corp, I’m Brian Fisher wishing you the

[00:11:16] best. Thanks.